YOU SHOULD PAY $ TO YOUR WORST TENANT

[Tom V.]

Have you had that point yet where you are ready to evict someone? They are late with the rent, they owe you a ton of money? They play loud music, smoke weed and their dog craps on your lawn? Call the lawyer!?!?!?!?!?!

No.....

It's time to pay the tenant some money to leave.

Why should I be paying money to these people who are hurting my business?

One of the best pieces of advice I got when I started landlording was from a more experienced guy. I asked how many people he had to evict per year from his 110 unit complex. He said, "None. I pay 'em." This is a tough concept to get your head around when you have fought and scrimped and saved for your property.

If you are going to evict someone, you will wind up paying someone (a lawyer, your mortgage company, your lost rent). Sit down and do the math.

Almost always, someone who isn't paying the rent simply doesn't have the money. If I am renting a 2BR for $800 and I have a problem, $3-400 cash for keys will nearly always make someone go away and quickly. You get a signed letter of receipt ("I have received $300 from [landlord] and I terminate my lease signe XYZ date at ABC adress), formal termination of tenancy, and your unit back. An eviction starts (for me in N. Cal at $750 legal and 6 weeks minimum court time.)

You or your property manager may have dropped the ball on screening the tenant. Whatever. The past is the past.

Do you want to be "right" or do you want to make money?

If you are a new landlord, you're probably pissed off. Don't be mad. Be smart. Think long term. Is it fair? No. Who told you life is fair. The court system is set up to protect the little man. In a landlord-tenant relationship, the tenant is always the little man.

Maybe it is important to you to 'prove a point' to that tenant. To 'teach them a lesson.' More power to you. You are morally correct. But is that why you became a landlord? To enforce right and wrong with people who are financial schmucks?

Avoid court.

Pay your tenants to leave.

Screen your tenants carefully and don't let it happen again.

[Andrew S.]

@Tom V.

I totally get your math and all else equal, you are making the best business decision - in the short term. If enough landlords follow your logic, eventually we will educate a whole generation of tenants who know that all they have to do is stop paying rent and they will get out of any contract whenever they want. Better still, they actually get paid to do so!

It is the same argument that is causing deep-pocketed companies to roll over at any threat of product liability litigation against them, and we have thousands of litigation lawyers and a clogged up court system to prove it.

Again, I get that you have to balance your short-term picture, but don't ignore the potential long-term impact.